been, said to Moses, when referring to Eldad and Medad, My Lord, Moses, forbid them." But Moses instantly replied, "Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that he would put his spirit upon them." Some of the followers of the harbinger of Christ would seem to have indulged the same spirit, and thought to sow jealousy in his mind. "Rabbi," said they, " he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold the same baptizeth, and all men come to him." But did John encourage them in this insinuation? Far from it. "If it be so," as though he had said, "this is perfect joy to me." "He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I decrease." Nay, even among the Apostles themselves a spirit was displayed too much akin to that which the Saviour would banish for ever from our minds. 66 Master," said John, the mild and beloved John, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us." But Jesus answered, “ Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us, is on our part. And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe on me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea." The Redeemer, therefore, in thus addressing his servants before going out to labour for him, would prevent the indulgence of this unlovely and injurious disposition. of mind. 66 Go," as though he had said, "the time of ingathering has come: property of all others the most valuable is about to be recovered to its lawful owner; but the harvest is great, and you have not the exclusive privilege of preaching my Gospel. Nay, to you your selves I look for increase, both as it regards the harvest itself and hands to reap it. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. To see the general produce of a country run to waste would be affecting, and the more so from the labour previously bestowed. Let not souls be thus lost, and more especially since I send you forth to all the joys of ingathering, and upon my account. But the harvest is great, and my purpose is to employ others, who, with you, will enter into the joy of labour; others, to whom the employment of body as well as mind will be a delight ;—but these are not to be obtained on my part, without prayer on yours." What a responsibility! The Saviour once suspended the saving of a child from disease, on the faith of his parent, which made the man to cry out with tears of entreaty; but here the harvest itself-the salvation of the multitude is in view, yet the labourers are not to be sent forth on his part, without prayer on theirs.* * But was this to be the concern, was this the duty of these men alone? Never will there be more of success in the cause of God, until there is more of the "Spirit of supplication." Prayer must, in fact, be regarded as an essential part of the labourer's, nay of every Christian's employ. Epaphras of Colosse well understood this.-Coloss. iv. 12. Here too the mind has ground to rest upon of a peculiar nature: for if the counsels of God are his highest affairs, and his own purposes are precious in his sight, these are expressed in promises, as so many grounds on which the suppliant is to rest, and as so many excitements to draw forth his desires. Besides, let it be remembered, that not one sincere desire has been, is now, or ever will be, in vain! No, so far as the spirit of supplication in the heart, has met with the spirit of promise and prophecy in the Sacred Record, not an aspiration has been, or will be, in vain! The prophets of old, far from indifferent to the signification of what they spake before hand, inquired and searched diligently ;-and it would be well if Christians would now begin to study and observe the analogy between the Spirit of Prophecy' under the former economy, and the Spirit of Supplication' under the present; for He, and He alone, is distinctly the moving cause of the last, as much as he was of the first. Before the coming of the Lord' there was a long and connected series of prophecies remained to be fulfilled; and before the knowledge of the Lord' shall cover the earth as the waters do the sea, there must, it now seems, be as rich a body of supplications to be answered. There has been, unquestionably, much of active exertion in our day; but let all who talk of public usefulness' pause and consider, for upon this principle some of our forefathers may still be far ahead of us, and we in the end may find that we have held but a very inferior place in the series of the divine procedure. There is such a thing as presumption in the ways of men-perhaps the highest is exertion with In such a case as this of the Native Irish, some men would talk only of looking about' for suitable instruments; but the province of oral instruction is a sacred enclosure, where every movement essentially depends upon God, and this will not do. Look upwards we must, and if we do, it would be impious to imagine that we shall look in vain. Men of his sending are essential, and, in such circumstances, we have no reason to presume upon them but in the way prescribed. Many who may never be able to acquire the Irish language could assist here. This harvest is not past-it is not over and gone. In Ireland some may say it is yet to be gathered; there too the harvest is great, and there, as it regards the Irish tongue, the labourers are emphatically few. The path, however, is plain. To be admitted, or rather to be invited into the presence of the Lord, is at all seasons an honour-to be permitted to address him concerning his own cause is greater still. Oh! were the faithful in this kingdom but alive to the importance, and the necessity, and the glorious consequences of earnest supplication here, what seasons of prosperity might we not witness? Such intercessors may have been laughed to scorn, and may be now; yet amidst all those happy days which have passed over other parts of this favoured Britain, who can say how much may have been owing to individual, genuine, unostentatious Christians improving their own personal interest, at the foot of the throne, on behalf of the general good? If then, in conclusion, all that has been proposed out earnest prayer. If then the spirit of supplication in us, comes instead of the spirit of prophecy in former ages,-for Christians pray acceptably only through the indwelling power and guidance of the Spirit,-let us implore this Spirit. We need not indulge in dreams about miraculous agency-but fervent prayer has not been shifted from the precise place which it occupied in the divine economy in ancient times-that is, it must still precede the season of God's gracious interference, James v. 16-18. It must still precede the fulfilment of the richest promises made and confirmed to the Redeemer himself, on the ground of his own dignity and worth, his death and merits. throughout these pages might be effected through the medium of the colloquial dialect, the Irish language, why should it not be employed for such invaluable purposes? But I add nothing more: perhaps the set time is already come when this long-neglected tongue will be employed, not merely as a medium of intercourse between man and man respecting the trifles of a day, but for all those invaluable ends to which, in common with every other form of human speech, it has been all along destined by the great Author of Nature, and the time also when these ends will be gained, not only in a distant or obscure corner, here and there, but in some degree commensurate with the necessities of the country. ན་ "We even doubt whether it be possible to possess one genuine virtue without the love of country. But it is the Christian religion which has imparted to this love its proper measure and its real beauty. Christianity has made it a principal and not an exclusive love. That is a charity which begins at home, but never ends there." "Ar son tig'e an Tig'earna ar n Dé; iarrsa mé mait' d'uitsi." Irish Scriptures. "Yet the day-star shall rise on the gloom of our sorrow, Native Irishman of Maghera. APPENDIX. Primitive Races and their respective Dialects. THE various points of inquiry, which are merely glanced at in this Appendix, the writer has not yet enjoyed the opportunity of investigating to the extent he could have wished. He attaches, therefore, nothing of that importance to them which is generally felt when any favourite theory is to be defended; and if, by those who are more conversant with these subjects, he should be found incorrect in any particular, this will neither affect the argument of the preceding pages, nor weaken our obligations with regard to the present race of the Native Irish. Among the learned men who have studied the subject of European antiquities, there seems to be but one opinion with regard to the quarter from whence the great body of her population came. They all profess to discover a rolling tide proceeding from the east,-wave following after wave,—the weaker giving way to, or pushed forward before, the more powerful; and though to point out the abode of all the Nomade tribes in given periods may be beyond the power of human research, yet writers of the most opposite opinions agree in regarding the most westerly as the most primitive or ancient nations. First in the possession of the soil, at the very dawn of history we see them first disturbed, and never having been entirely destroyed, remnants of them still remain. Without any discordance of sentiment, we may advance at least one step farther. The indications of three distinct and successive populations are gener |